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#TipTuesday: Collections

Working with multiple sets of data can be difficult sometimes. However, with your GIS application’s “Collections” feature, you can organize your results in a quick and easy manner.

In order to use “Collections,” you will first have to use the “Identify” tool to select an area with identifiable results. The example below shows results for the number of trees in the selected area. Then, by clicking on the menu button outlined in red, you can select “Save Results,” which will prompt you to name your results, saving them to a collection.

After you name your results and click “Save,” they can be displayed at any time. In order to do so, click on the same menu button and select “Open Saved Results.”

You will then have the option to open, edit, or delete your results.

In addition, this tool allows saved results to be combined or manipulated. For example, if you wanted to keep count of the number of trees in a downtown area and in a suburban area in separate collections, you can later combine them to see a result set containing both.

In order to do so, you would save both the downtown and suburban results in different collections. With one collection open, click the menu button and select “Combine Results.” Then, you will have the option to add, subtract, or match your results. For this example, we want to add two collections together. Clicking the “Add” option allows you to choose a saved collection to add to the current one. (Note: This will not overwrite either collection.)

Once you combine your results, they will not be saved anywhere. It will be necessary for you to save your combined results using the same process mentioned previously. Once saved, you can go back to the menu option and select “Open Saved Results” to view multiple collections.

*Note: Your saved results will not be accessible after you log out of your current GIS session. Stay tuned for next week’s #TipTuesday to learn how to access your results each time you log on!